Working "at home" but regularly FROM other/public locations

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JohnCJackson

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Mar 16, 2007
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This is probably a stupid question ( I am probably overthinking/analyzing but that's what I do), but here's the ( relatively) short version. I have been working from home for longer than I can remember- the last 4 years exclusively. My productivity has the reached the point that I just can't do it anymore. I have tried everything I could think of to improve the situation but what was once a dream scenario of working at home has become 99% just being home and less than 1% actually working.

I have looked into getting an office somewhere, but I don't think it would make sense to commit to that. I could swing the money for it, but a lot of the expenses and things just seem redundant. The same goes for buying another house just for work ( which I briefly considered but not seriously).

So I was thinking. I get free wifi at 1000s of locations, plus there are many businesses that offer it to customers anyway ( and seem to encourage people to hang out). What if I setup my "home office" in some public ( well technically a private business) location like a bookstore, coffee shop, or restaurant.

Do people actually do this? I hear about some people, especially "bloggers" or people ( some are even not MLM scammers!) who have meetings at Starbucks for example. However, I don't actually know anyone or see anyone who appears to do this. I am wondering mostly if people will think there is something fucking wrong with me if I did this. Will they ask me to get lost,etc. What I was thinking of doing is maybe setting a schedule ( 4-5 hours a day M-F would be sufficient) and go work at these places. I wouldn't mind buying food/drinks/books/whatever as I already eat out every day and an office costs more. Maybe I would just go out for lunch and stay for 5 hours. I don't know. I could mix it up so I am not the same place every day, but making sure I get a certain number of hours of real work in every day.

Am I an idiot? Should I just get an office? just give up and get a job at Burger King?
 


Lol, "bloggers" might use free wifi to run there business because they're morons who don't know anything about security. For example, I went to a hotel once, plugged in my laptop and within 10 seconds I was capturing every password going through the network. ONLY run your business on a network that is exclusive to you unless you want to find out one day you've been completely hacked.
 
There's a burger flipper with your name on it.

Kidding. Why not try your local library? Quiet, no noise, no TV, can't visit "off-topic" websites...

If not there try your idea of cycling to different places... Panera, Starbucks... who cares what employees making $7.25 an hour think if you wanna chill there for 30 hours week making $1000 an hour.

Edit: Post above brought up a solid point... security concerns.
 
I know exactly what you are going through.

I wake up and do my personal training job in the morning and when I get back to my apartment to work on my websites I find myself being unproductive a lot of times.

If that is the case I will head out to the coffee shop around the corner and buy a coffee and get to work. The change of scenery always helps me refocus. If I stay at home I find myself surfing more, instead of working more. Or playing Xbox instead of working, etc...

Give it a shot, head out to the coffee shop and see how productive you are. I think you would be amazed at what a little change like that can do for you.
 
Lately, I've been thinking about going to the library to improve my productivity. I can't think of a better and quieter place which wouldn't cost me anything. Plus, the library in my area offers free wireless.
 
I frequently work away from home... and have a backpack that I carry my laptop, external hard drives, etc. in... the laptop bags are just too small to fit my mobile office...

a change of scenery can be a great thing... sometimes I get way more done away from home than at home... but if you're in a place where people are constantly bothering you, it can be distracting...

of course, if you're doing something like watermarking bukkake videos, you may want to do that in a more private setting...

btw, get a mobile broadband card... then you can work from anywhere you can get a signal... and you won't have to worry about people stealing your stuff from the wifi...
 
Why not just redecorate another room in your current house (buying another house is a bit beyond extreme. seriously.) and resolve that from now on when you walk into that room with your computer that you will work. When in that room, have leechblock running to make sure you don't visit time wasting websites etc.
 
Citizen Space » About

This is what you want, if you are in the bay area there are plenty around and it'll keep you sane and give you lunch mates, good networking opportunities.

They are popping up all over the country (US).
 
Remember you're a business dude, the idea is to bring in more than you spend, and to spend what you have wisely.

I don't care if you're making $1000/month or $100,000 a month, if having an office is an expense and won't improve your revenue, you don't get one.
 
_poto_ said:
btw, get a mobile broadband card... then you can work from anywhere you can get a signal... and you won't have to worry about people stealing your stuff from the wifi...
Click to expand...

I can vouch for Verizon mobile broadband, if your planning on traveling around or just want to change your scenery once in a while then get it.
 
VPN is a cheaper way to be secure than a wifi card. But you need some sort of LAN or wifi service there already. Less than $10 a month for many.
 
i think i'd enjoy doing a bit of work out in public spaces except it's much more difficult to hit the pipe for inspiration throughout the workday.

oh, and as long as you tip well the waitresses or whomever at the local coffee hangout probably won't care if you stay and work for 2-3 hours a pop.
 
I spend about 70% of my working hours in coffee shops and libraries. In fact I am posting this from a library.

I have my own mobile broadband for $70/month.

There are no real problems. I love it.

Beats the shit out of going stircrazy at home.
 
i have a legitimate office... it feels good to seperate work from just random bullshitting online... but then again i actually need the office. i know a few people who spend a lot of time at starbucks and shit.

might as well hook up a wireless card and work from the park or something
 
I have an "office" at home. I'm still working at wage earning, but having a home work space helps. When the time comes I plan to have a laptap and travel around doing this! With broadband you can sit at a park or go camping or where ever you choose and work. (My dream :) )

If you don't want to spend the money on broadband, get out of the house, do all your offline business at different businesses and wait until you are secure at home to put it online.

Planned social activities could help too. You will probably start to get to know people as you become a "regular" at a few places.
 
-Matt- said:
Why not just redecorate another room in your current house (buying another house is a bit beyond extreme. seriously.) and resolve that from now on when you walk into that room with your computer that you will work. When in that room, have leechblock running to make sure you don't visit time wasting websites etc.
Click to expand...

This works. I do that exact thing. One room is my office, and what gets done there is work and nothing else.
 
As for encrypting your public wifi connection. You can make ssh tunneling. For your remote ssh server try Amazon EC2. It seems like very very cheap remote virtual machine and hosting.
 
You need a routine in your life and also a reason for working. Instead of thinking of working everyday from home, which is causing you to procrastinate, you should designate 1, 2 or 3 days (at most) a week to working on you websites. So for example, plan to work on the your sites on monday and wednesday, from 10am till 5pm. THATS IT. The rest of the time, you could do what the fuck you want without feeling guilty.

After all this is the whole point of not having a job. People get into the mistake of quiting their jobs but end up being a slave to their own business afterwards. They miss what they ultimately should be after. THE LIFESTYLE! Free up your time, and work less days but concentrate without distraction when you do work.
 
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